Eurovision Song Contest 2013
|withdraw = |vote = 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points for each ten country's favourites |nul = None |winner = "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest |pre = 2012 |nex = 2014}} The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Malmö, Sweden, following Loreen's win in the 2012 contest with the song "Euphoria". It was the fifth time that Sweden had hosted the contest, the last time being in 2000. Sveriges Television (SVT) chose Malmö Arena as the venue following the consideration of several venues in Sweden. The host for the contest was Petra Mede. Thirty-nine countries participated, including Armenia, which was last represented in 2011. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey announced their withdrawal from the 2013 Contest. The design of the contest was built around the theme "We are one" – highlighting equality and unity of all the participating countries alongside the cultural diversity and influence of each participant. Compared to previous contests in the history of Eurovision, rather than focusing on promoting its own country, Sweden chose to lay focus on the artists and their respective countries. The postcards presented before every song which have traditionally been used to show the host country's nature, culture and social life, were changed to show the typical everyday life of each individual artist in their home countries scattered around Europe. The winner for 2013 was Denmark with the song "Only Teardrops" sung by Emmelie de Forest, which finished first with 281 points, beating number two Azerbaijan with a margin of 47 points. This makes it the second time that Denmark won on Swedish soil. Ukraine finished in third place and Norway in fourth. Out of the countries with the 'Big 5' status, only Italy managed to finish in the top ten, coming seventh. The Netherlands finished ninth in their first participation in a final since 2004. For the first time since 1985, no country of the former Yugoslav federation qualified for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Venue When Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, the chief executive of Sveriges Television (SVT), Eva Hamiltion, said to Swedish media that venues in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are being considered as the venue. The most recent host arena of the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 2000, is booked for the World Ice Hockey Championships, and will not be used to host Eurovision Song Contest 2013. SVT is reviewing all the possibilities for the arrangement of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. One alternative put forward in Expressen was to hold the competition at three different venues – the semi-finals in Gothenburg and Malmö and the final in Stockholm. On 20th of June, 2012, Gothenburg had withdrawn from the bidding contest because of their hosting of the Göteborg Horse Show in late April 2013. There was also a concern about hotel rooms in the city due to other events happening in the same time frame. A final decision was announced by SVT on July 8, 2012 that the host will be Malmö. Format The combination of televoting and jury voting results underwent changes that were detailed in the official rules for the 2013 contest. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the jury's full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1-point. It was announced in the official Media Handbook that an official app would also be available for voters to vote via during the contest. Official sponsors of the broadcast were the main Swedish-Finnish telecommunication company TeliaSonera, and the German cosmetics company Schwarzkopf. The competition sponsors were the makeup company IsaDora, the supermarket ICA and Tetra Pak. The singer and actress Sarah Dawn Finer also appeared in both semifinals and the final in sketches as the comic character Lynda Woodruff. "Lynda" presented the votes for Sweden at the previous contest in Baku. Finer also appeared in the final as herself performing the ABBA song "The Winner Takes It All" before the results were announced. The footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović was revealed on 28 April to be part of the opening segment of the Eurovision final, in a pre-recorded message welcoming viewers to his home city of Malmö. The 2011 Swedish entrant Eric Saade was the host of the green room during the final. Running order Unlike previous years, the running order was not decided by the drawing of lots, but instead by the producers, with the aim of making the shows more exciting and ensuring that all contestants had a chance to stand out, preventing entries that are too similar cancelling each other out. The decision elicited mixed reactions from both fans of the contest and participating broadcasters. The running order for the semi-finals was released on 28 March 2013. The running order for the final was determined on 17 May 2013. An additional allocation draw occurred for the final with each finalist nation drawing to perform either in the first or second half of the final. The allocation draw for qualifying countries from the semi-finals occurred during the semi-final winners' press conferences following each semi-final, while the allocation draw for the Big Five countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) occurred during their first individual press conferences on 15 May 2013. As the host country, the running order position for Sweden in the final was exclusively determined by a draw during the heads of delegation meeting on 18 March 2013. Sweden was drawn to perform 16th in the final. Graphic design On 17 January 2013, at the semi-final allocation draw, the EBU revealed the graphic design, created by the Gothenburg-based branding agency Happy F&B for the 2013 contest, featuring a butterfly and slogan "We Are One". The butterfly featured an array of colours and textures, it also represented something small which can start powerful and big movements, a phenomenon known as the butterfly effect, indicating that a flap from one butterfly can start a hurricane. SVT confirmed on 19 February 2013 that the postcard films, used to introduce each song in the contest, would feature each artist in their respective country, to give the viewer a personal insight of each competing participant. This broke with recent tradition of the postcards often containing short segments of life within either the host city or country of the contest. The on-air graphics were produced by Broken Doll, a production company. The animation of the many butterflies was done by the visual effects studio Swiss International. National host broadcaster On 11 July 2012, the show producer Christer Björkman advised the public not to buy tickets for the 2013 Contest that are currently in circulation and instead to wait for tickets to be released through official channels. Björkman said that official tickets had not yet been released, as necessary decisions over the stage and seating plans had not yet been made. Björkman also gave reassurance that accommodation would be available, as while the organizers had booked a large quantity of hotel rooms, some may be made available to the general public. On 21 November 2012, SVT officially announced the launch of ticket sales. On 17 October 2012, the executive producer Martin Österdahl told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that SVT plans for the 2013 Contest to have only one presenter for the entire contest, unlike previous years where there were up to three presenters per show. The last time there was just one presenter was in the 1995 Contest, in Dublin, Ireland, when the solo host was Mary Kennedy. Incidents Azerbaijan Before the Contest finals, it was reported in Lithuanian media that an undercover video recording published on YouTube seemed to suggest that Azerbaijan was paying bribes for phone votes from Lithuania. Lithuania ended up voting the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan. Students said they were approached by men who offered them €20 each to vote multiple times for a contestant. Their goal was to recruit groups of 10 people to vote for Azerbaijan. Those recruited were given SIM cards, which would allow them to vote as many times as possible within 15 minutes. Dialogue in the video suggested that similar activity was taking place in a total of 15 countries including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Croatia and Switzerland. In response, the European Broadcasting Union's official contest website eurovision.tv published a news article, quoting the Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand reaffirming the contest organisers' commitment to a "fair and transparent result". He stated: "We are looking into this case, but would emphasise that the intention of these individuals have not yet been clarified, and nor has a link been established between the individuals in the video and the Azeri delegation, the Azeri act or the Azeri EBU member Ictimai TV." He added that, since 1998, when he was first involved with the contest, "every year there are rumors about irregularities in the voting". Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus When Azerbaijan officially awarded no points to Dina Garipova of Russia, despite Garipova having reportedly come second in the country's phone poll, the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered an inquiry. The Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the result had been falsified, and stated: "This outrageous action will not remain without a response". He promised a co-ordinated response with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov. Simultaneously, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that his own country having received no points from Russia showed that the result must have been falsified. Accusations of plagiarism Allegations of plagiarism against the winning Danish entry surfaced after Eric van Tijn, a notable Dutch music producer, mentioned the opening flute solo's similarity to "I Surrender", a 2002 song by the Dutch band K-Otic. However Eric van Tijn also stated that the flute solo was the only similarity between the two songs, thus calling it "a storm in a teacup". Finland's same-sex kiss The performance of the Finnish entry, "Marry Me", caused controversy in certain more socially conservative countries broadcasting the contest. The act featured the female singer Krista Siegfrids kissing one of her female backing singers at the end, widely labelled in media as Eurovision's first "lesbian kiss". It was reported that Turkish and Greek media reacted negatively to Siegfrid's act. The Turkish Eurovision broadcaster TRT, who had earlier withdrawn from competing in the contest for 2013, initially indicated that they would still broadcast the contest, but apparently made a late decision not to do so. A number of media reports directly linked this decision to the kiss in the Finnish performance, although TRT stated the reason was low viewing figures for the contest. Jury in the Netherlands After the first semi final, Dutch commentator Daniël Dekker prematurely revealed Cornald Maas and Eric van Tijn as two members of the Dutch jury. Maas and Van Tijn were replaced for the final by Jeroen Nieuwenhuize and André de Raaff. Eric Saade Green Room host Eric Saade referred to Petra Mede as a "MILF" on air during the break between the first and second halves of the voting, saying "Back to you, Petra. #MILF." While the statement was supposedly scripted, with the SVT aware of Saade's plan, some on social media were confused and offended by the comment. Participating countries It was announced on 21 December 2012 that 39 countries would compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Armenia, which was last represented in 2011, confirmed that it would be returning to the contest following a one-year break. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal both withdrew from the 2013 Contest due to financial difficulties, whilst Slovakia and Turkey withdrew for different reasons. Returning artists Valentina Monetta represented San Marino for the second year in a row. Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov returned as a duo, having previously represented Bulgaria in 2007. Nevena Božović represented Serbia as part of Moje 3 and became the first contestant to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest after competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, where she came third in 2007. Bledar Sejko, who represented Albania, was the on-stage guitarist for the Albanian entry in 2011. Gor Sujyan, who represented Armenia, was a backing vocalist for the Armenian entry in 2010. Aliona Moon, who represented Moldova, was a backing vocalist for the Moldovan entry in 2012. Also Pasha Parfeny, the Moldovan representative of 2012 was the composer of the Moldovan entry. Estonian backing vocalists Lauri Pihlap and Kaido Põldma were a part of the group 2XL, which won the contest in 2001 together with Dave Benton and Tanel Padar. Semi Final 1 Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are marked in orange qualified to the final. Voting Results Jury/Televote results Semi Final 2 Germany, France and Spain voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are marked in orange qualified to the final. Voting Results Jury/Televote results Final Voting Results Jury/Televote results Videos Full shows Video:Eurovision Song Contest 2013 - Grand Final - Full|The Grand Final (Russian) Video:Eurovision Song Contest 2013 (Semi Final 1) HD Full Show|Semi-final 1 (German) Video:Eurovision Song Contest 2013 (Semi Final 2) HD Full Show|Semi-final 2 (German) Non-competing acts Video:Eurovision 2013 1st Semifinal Opening Act|1st Semifinal Opening Act "Euphoria" Category:Eurovision Song Contests Category:Contests in Sweden Category:Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest Category:Eurovision Song Contest 2013